


Fire in the Dark

by kyouko



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: High School AU, M/M, Werewolf AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-10 21:31:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1164751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyouko/pseuds/kyouko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't a surprise, not really. One minute he had been walking home from basketball practice with nothing but a comfortable sort of soreness in his limbs. The next he was on the pavement, all the air knocked out of him and replaced with a pain that spread like wildfire. </p><p>It would have been comical—laughable, even—had he not been lying on the pavement in a puddle of his own blood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire in the Dark

Gold. Levi remembered gold.

He wasn't sure how to describe it, a colour so raw and powerful it seemed to be spun of sunset itself—a gold that crept over the skyline at dawn. It was the gold that he had watched recede back into bleeding pink and blue on those summer days in France, swinging his legs over the edge of the porch swing. _Gold_ like his grand-mère's locket, the one she had pressed between his ten-year old hands. It still smelled like her house, of baby powder and satin.

 _Gold,_ tarnished and dark and  thin beneath his fingers as he had briefly considered throwing the locket out and along with it, all the memories of those summer days and blue raspberry popsicles melting in his hands. There was something hazy in those memories, something hazy as grand-mère 's hands in his. "It will protect you," she whispered, again and again like a mantra, a _promise._ But clearly that had meant nothing.

 _Gold,_ like the look that had settled on grand-mère's face, a colour so peaceful and foreign against the stark white of her wrinkled and old skin.

 Gold, much too bright for the death in her eyes as she called Levi to her bedside and stretched her arms out (and Levi promised himself that he would not stare at what his grand-mère had become), hugging him for the last time. In that moment she had smelled strongly of the forest, something so wild he thought it finally, _finally_ matched the even wilder look in her eyes. She had held Levi, just like that,  paper-thin weak arms cold around his body. And Levi could not even bring himself to cry for grand-mère and her small cottage on the edge of the lake; the cottage that had always stood there with open arms in the face of sunset, bright and brilliant as the gold swept down and swallowed it whole—engulfed it in a shade somewhere between sunlight and fire. Levi could hardly tell the difference anymore.

And again, in that moment, he saw not grand-mère but the woman his grandfather had fallen in love with, wild as dawn and the gold that crept over it. He didn't see her or the wrinkles of dark that had covered her eyes long before Levi was born. He didn't see the hunching of her shoulders or how her limbs seemed to retract into themselves. He saw her, alit with the white ivory of her scars and bleeding blue of her eyes—a woman of fire. And perhaps he saw why the dark had appeared, too. His grand-mère had been too brilliant even for the shine and gleam of the iron they caged her in. She had taken his hands in hers and let him go— _slowly—_ as all hues of sunset disappeared into the black.

"Gold, Levi," she whispered, light flickering once before fading completely, "I saw gold."

And then she was still, completely so, like someone had snuffed out her fire and left what remained to smolder like summer nights and the cottage in France.

As he lay there, street lights blinking on and off before the dark swelled upon him, he thought of grand-mère and her origami promises—grand-mère with her soft eyes and softer hands, grand-mère and the gold locket around his neck. Grand-mère, and the promise that something as flimsy as her locket would protect him ( _against what, against what_ ), even if it did not protect her. The death was of "natural causes"— _bullshit,_ Levi knew. Her death was like the death of a candle, he thought, something had merely blown her light right out. There was nothing natural about that.

 _This is how I'm going to die,_ he thought numbly, and the streetlights blurred and blended into darkness. It wasn't a surprise, not really. One minute he had been walking home from basketball practice with nothing but a comfortable sort of soreness in his limbs. The next minute he was on the pavement, all the air knocked out of him and replaced with a pain that spread like wildfire. It would have been comical—laughable, even—had he not been lying on the pavement in a puddle of his own blood.

Levi knew death was as quick and merciless as the tide. It could pull him away, just like that.

But there was something in dying like _this,_ still sticky with sweat and the scent of the basketball court that frightened him. He almost wanted to laugh, but the sudden burst of pain in his leg (that actually hadn't been all that sudden—it had been waiting like a trap) stopped him.

With trembling, cold hands, he reached down to his calf. It throbbed, the pain sending dizzying waves of nausea to his head. His stomach churned as he peeled back the denim with shaking hand, gasping as the wound was exposed to the cool night air. The pavement bit into him as he moved, and he was only vaguely aware of the hand that drifted up to claw at his locket.

Taking a deep breath as beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead and neck, he struggled to sit up and stared at the wound on his leg. The sight nearly made him faint, and the light-headedness made white spots swim in front of his vision. The gashes were deep and ugly, and they swept from just below his knee to just above his ankle. They were still wet and fresh with his blood and the scent was so thick that it was suddenly _so difficult_ to breathe. He shifted his leg, and he thought he saw a quick, white flash of bone that made him snap his eyes shut tight. Whether it was a miracle or a curse that he hadn't passed out yet, Levi didn't know.

Every small movement was excruciating, and the pain seemed to burn like fire as it spread _everywhere._ Every breath that clawed against his breath felt like smoke, and every breath that managed to escape was shorter and shorter. This was death, he realized. Death was not soft and gentle like "sleep" or song. It wasn't a heartfelt goodbye in a bed, nor was it beautiful. Levi knew this better than, perhaps, anyone else. Death was quick and relentless. And this was his.

 _I'm going to die._ There was a finality to his own tone that scared him more than anything else.

The scent of his own blood was so strong and raw (like meat, he thought, and something in that was hilarious—but then again, so was everything else in those glimpses he had left) that he seemed to drown in it (and maybe that was better, maybe it was better that he drown in the scent of his own blood then the pain that--no, he wouldn't think about that).

Everything was too much that he felt he was bursting from the inside out. The thrum in his ears of his own ragged heartbeat and even more ragged breathing—mixed with whispers (no, that word was too gentle. _Scream_ was more accurate) of _I'm going to die_ again and again and _again—_ almost covered another sound that made him freeze.

Almost.

(every limb in his body protested against the cluster of deep gashes on his leg— _away, away, away,_ they urged, _run, run run—_ )

_I'm going to die._

The growl in the dark was louder as something, larger and predatory, prowled towards him. The streetlights flickered again. He supposed he heard someone screaming—and maybe that was him, maybe that was him scrambling backwards and drowning in the yellow, dim glow of the lamps overhead that clawed and swatted at him with a finger to their lips—

( _i'mgoingtodiegoingtodiegoingtodiegoingtodiedon'twanttodiedon'twanttodiegoldgoldGOLD—)_

Every shadow looked like a monster reaching for him with giant, cold hands that would _squeeze_ and then—

Another growl. Levi almost wanted to laugh. _Quickly,_ he pleaded silently, one hand clutching grand-mère's locket for dear life, _do it quickly._

In the gloom, Levi could make out another shape moving towards him, sleek and graceful. Beastly, he thought. Beneath the sickeningly _sweet_ scent of his own blood, Levi could smell something else. It was grand-mère's scent—and not the one of baby powder and old, worn,  satin dresses but her _real_ scent—the forest and its proud pines and rain, the smell of monsters in the wild on a hunt. He heard a sick, wet sound, and another sharp, high squeal before it fell silent. There was quick gleam of moon-white teeth and the last thing he remembered seeing was the shape of a large wolf before whatever little light the lamps offered disappeared completely.

The growls and roars grew again while Levi realized the cry of pain hadn't come from him. He couldn't make out anything in the dark, not even the gashes on his leg that were growing duller and duller as everything blurred together. Everything flashed in and out, _in and out,_ and it was getting harder to breathe and even harder to keep his eyes open.

Gold. The last thing Levi remembered was gold—two bright, beastly eyes that held the grace of a hunter, burning and brilliant as fire in the dark—before everything went black.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm going to add this to the pile of things that seemed like a good idea at the time and just as a general disclaimer i have no clue where this is going (besides the 5 chapters i have planned lmao) so you're in for a wild ride
> 
> sorry if it was boring (honestly who needs 1k+ words describing the colour gold) sorry if i lost anyone????? if you're confused about what happened (hopefully the first chapter will actually clear things up) feel free to ask. any sloppy grammar is entirely my own fault.
> 
> my tumblr is mpregshrek (don't ask) or you can type in http://www.eren.tea.jp if you'd like to chat! if anyone thinks this is worth making posts about i guess you can post it in the fic: fire in the dark tag


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